Ballot hunt ends, next stage begins

A missing envelope with 133 Minneapolis ballots might go down in history as one of Minnesota's unexplained political mysteries.

Officials in the heavily Democratic city called off the search for that envelope Monday, bringing an end to counting in the 2008 U.S. Senate race recount and pivoting the election to its next phase. That includes canvassing the recount results and deciding on potentially thousands of challenged ballots that should determine who emerges from the recount in position to win a race that has now extended five weeks past Election Day.

"While we are disappointed that the envelope containing 133 missing paper ballots (has) not been found, we take solace in the fact that the voters of this precinct will still have their votes counted, as the secretary of state has said that the canvassed and audited election night results may stand in the absence of these ballots," said Marc Elias, an attorney for Democratic challenger Al Franken.

Despite Elias' optimism, what happens to those votes — which city officials believe were counted at Ward 3, Precinct 1, before being placed in an envelope marked "1 of 5" and disappearing — will be up to the state canvassing board. If the votes were not included in the precinct's totals, incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman would gain 36 votes compared with the election night tally.

A spokesman for Coleman cautioned that there may be other plausible explanations for why the recount in that precinct

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came up 133 votes short of the Election Day totals, despite growing belief the ballots are, in fact, missing.

"We would hope further review of these other scenarios will be conducted, rather than just accepting the political spin of the Franken campaign," spokesman Mark Drake said.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said Monday there is precedent for counting the original tally.

The margin between the two candidates is whisper-thin. When the dust settled from the Nov. 4 election, Coleman led Franken by 215 votes out of 2.9 million cast. That triggered a three-week statewide hand recount that became muddled as the campaigns challenged 6,655 ballots, disputing the interpretation of the voter's intent on those ballots.

The two sides have since started withdrawing those challenges. Franken said he was withdrawing 425 challenges Monday, bringing his total to 1,058 withdrawals out of 3,280 challenges.

The Coleman campaign has withdrawn 650 of its 3,375 challenges, and a spokesman said more withdrawals are expected today.

Monday also marked the beginning of a review of rejected absentee ballots and whether they were properly dismissed. Even that process opened up a new point of contention, as some counties chose not to enter what they regard as a dispute between the two campaigns best left for a court to decide.

"(Our) advice is, we probably need some direction from a court," said Ramsey County Elections Manager Joe Mansky, who oversees elections in Minnesota's second-most populous county.

Mansky said the county consulted with its attorney before deciding against sorting rejected absentee ballots. He pointed out there is no provision for it in state law. There were 1,406 rejected absentee ballots in Ramsey County.

Ritchie sent counties a 3,200-word set of instructions on how to sort the ballots, following up on a discussion held at a Nov. 26 state canvassing board meeting.

Despite wanting to learn the scope of the problem of improperly rejected absentee ballots, the board had disagreements over whether it could order those votes counted and never passed an official motion requiring counties to do it.

On a sorting schedule posted on the secretary of state's Web site, only 56 of Minnesota's 87 counties are listed.

Washington County also chose not to proceed. Director of Elections Kevin Corbid said the county initially planned to sort the absentee ballots before changing its mind over the weekend. He also said the county already has a good understanding of how many ballots were rejected and why.

"We're trying to remain impartial, not look like we're favoring one side or the other," Corbid said.

The Franken campaign has pushed for re-examination of rejected absentee ballots, saying those that were improperly rejected are simply uncounted votes.

But Fritz Knaak, an attorney for Coleman, sent a strongly worded letter to Ritchie on Friday about the sorting process — despite initially indicating the campaign's acquiescence.

"We strongly believe that the requested activities, to be undertaken at taxpayer expense, are wholly outside of the jurisdictional scope of an administrative recount but, instead, constitute initial discovery steps in an election contest," Knaak wrote.

One county that chose to proceed is Anoka County, where Elections Supervisor Rachel Smith said the county finished sorting its ballots Monday.

Smith said the county found 25 ballots that did not meet one of the four statutory reasons for rejecting absentee votes. Most were cases where a voter registration card was included in the absentee envelope, but the election judge did not initially find it, Smith said.

A spokesman said Minneapolis would likely have a tally ready today, and in Dakota County, officials plan to start sorting this morning.

Dakota County Elections Supervisor Kevin Boyle said the sorting would include a review of ballots that were rejected for having mismatched voter signatures, an issue Franken raised. Ritchie's instructions to counties ask that ballots where the voter signatures "are similar, but not identical" be set aside for further scrutiny.

"If they find an obvious match, then that ballot should go in the fifth pile," Coleman campaign spokesman Mark Drake said. "If there is not an obvious match between the two signatures, then it should remain in the rejected pile."

Ritchie said he is not concerned that some counties are not sorting absentee ballots, saying that it is voluntary and that enough are participating to give the canvassing board a good idea of how widespread the problem is.

He also said he was confident that all improperly rejected absentee votes will eventually be counted.

"I'm committed to making sure that every person who legally and properly voted has their vote counted," Ritchie said. "Minnesotans now and in future elections need to know that if they do everything right, their vote's going to count."

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